Real line, decimals and significant figures

Important Ideas and Useful Facts:

(i) Sets and elements: A set is a collection of objects, referred to as elements. A set may be
represented, for example, by a list of elements surrounded by curly brackets and
separated by commas, or using set builder notation {...|...}, where the vertical line is an
abbreviation for “such that”. For example, {x | x is a natural number less than 5} and
{0,1,2,3,4} represent the same set, whose elements are precisely 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4.
(A natural number is a whole counting number, including zero. Note that some people do
not count zero as a counting number, but we do in this course!)

(ii) Element symbol: The symbol ∈ is an abbreviation for “is an element of”, and 6∈ is an
abbreviation for “is not an element of”. For example, if

A = {x | x is a natural number less than 5} ,

then 2 ∈ A, but 5 6∈ A.

(iii) Subset symbols: If A and B are sets and we write A ⊆ B or B ⊇ A , then we mean that
every element of A is also an element of B, and say that A is a subset of B. For example
{1,2,3} ⊆ {1,2,3,4} and {1,2,3,4} ⊇ {1,2,3}, but {1,2,3,4} 6⊆ {1,2,3}.

(iv) Equality of sets: If A and B are sets then A = B if and only if A ⊆ B and B ⊆ A, that is, A
and B have precisely the same elements. Order and repetition are not important. For
example, {1,2,3,4} = {4,1,3,2} = {4,1,3,1,2,3}.

(v) Intersection, union and slash: If A and B are sets then put

(a) A ∩ B = {x | x ∈ A and x ∈ B }, called the intersection of A and B.

(vi) Natural numbers: The set N = {0,1,2,3,...} of natural numbers forms a number system,
closed under addition and multiplication, by which we mean that if m and n are
natural numbers, then m+n and mn (the result of multiplying m by n) are also natural
numbers.

(vii) Integers: The set Z = {0,±1,±2,±3,...} of integers forms a number system, closed under
addition, subtraction and multiplication.

(viii) Rationals: The set Q = {a/b | a,b ∈ Z,b 6= 0} of fractions, also called rational numbers
(derived from the word ratio), forms a number system, closed under addition,

1
 subtraction, multiplication and division by nonzero elements. To add and multiply
rational numbers, use the rules

and .

(ix) Decimal expansion of a real number: A nonnegative real number α has a decimal
expansion
α = bnbn−1 ...b2b1 · a1a2a3 ...
where the bi and aj are digits from the set {0,1,2,...,9}, and the dot between b1 and a1
represents the decimal point.

(x) Recurring decimal expansions: A real number is rational if and only if it has a recurring
decimal expansion, which means the pattern of digits repeats forever from some point
onwards. For example,

,
where the two dots indicate the start and finish of the pattern of digits that gets repeated.

(xi) The real number line: The real numbers form a number system R that is closed under
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by nonzero elements. We visualise R
as a continuous number line, called the real line, with zero in the middle, negative
numbers to the left and positive numbers to the right.

(xii) The number π: The real number π = 3.14159... is the ratio of the perimeter of a circle to
its diameter. The fact that π is the same for all circles is an advanced argument
involving limits (a concept explained in Module 3) that relies on the fact that circles
can be approximated arbitrarily well using similar triangles and the fact that ratios of
corresponding sides of similar triangles are equal.

(xiii) Irrationals: A real number that is not rational (that is, cannot be expressed as a
fraction√ √

involving a ratio of integers) is called irrational. For example,√ 2, 3 and π are irrational,
though the proof for π is difficult. (A proof that 2 is irrational is given in the notes
accompanying the next video.)

(xiv) Significant figures: Real numbers may be approximated by rational numbers with finite
decimal expansions. The number of digits counted to the right from the leftmost
positive digit is called the number of significant figures. For example, real numbers
represented by 26.103, 0.00304 and 0.003040 are quoted to 5, 3 and 4 significant
figures respectively.

(xv) Scientific notation: A positive real number α is expressed in scientific notation if it has

the form α = b · a1a2 ...am × 10k

2
 where m is nonnegative and k is an integer, and the dot between b and a1 represents the
decimal point. For example, 193.034 and 0.003040 become 1.93034×102 and 3.040×10−3
respectively in scientific notation. The number of digits used in scientific notation is the
number of significant figures being quoted, and this avoids ambiguity in the case of large
whole numbers (with zeros as place-holders).

(xvi) Accuracy rule for addition and subtraction: When adding or subtracting numbers, the
final answer should be quoted to the least number of decimal places that occurs.

(xvii) Accuracy rule for multiplication and division: When multiplying or dividing numbers, the
final answer should be quoted to the least number of significant figures that occurs.

Examples:

1. Consider the following real number

α = 3.1˙4 = 3˙ .14141414... ,

which has a recurring decimal expansion. We can find a fraction that represents α, by a
trick that expresses α in terms of itself in such a way that the recurring decimal
expansion disappears by subtraction:

100α − α = 314.1˙4˙ − 3.1˙4 = 311˙ .

Hence 99α = 311, so . This trick, though it looks specific to this example, can be
turned into a proof that any real number with a recurring decimal expansion can be
expressed as a fraction, that is, a ratio of integers.

2. Let α = 9.4 and β = 2.13, considered as measurements, quoted to one and two decimal
places respectively. Then

α + β = 9.4 + 2.13 = 11.53 ≈ 11.5

and
α − β = 9.4 − 2.13 = 7.27 ≈ 7.3,
quoting the answers, in each case, correct to one decimal place, since α is only quoted to
one decimal place. Further,

αβ = α × β = 9.4 × 2.13 = 20.022 ≈ 20 = 2.0 × 10

and

,
quoting the answer, in each case, correct to two significant figures, since α is only
quoted to two significant figures. Note that, to avoid ambiguity, the answer 20 = 2.0 × 10
is written in scientific notation, to make clear that the zero digit is significant.

3
3. The radius of the earth is approximately 6,370,000 metres correct only to three significant
figures (so the zeros that appear are just place holders in the base 10 representation).
To avoid ambiguity, one could write the radius of the earth as

6,370,000 = 6.37 × 106 metres .

The radius of the Jupiter however is approximately 70,000,000 metres. This estimate is
intended to be accurate to two significant figures (especially as there is considerable
difference measuring the radius of Jupiter from the poles compared with measuring it
from the equator). To avoid ambiguity, one could write

70,000,000 = 7.0 × 107 metres .